New constitution takes effect in Bolivia

Bolivia's President Evo Morales holds up the new constitution after signing it into effect in El Alto, Bolivia, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. The new constitution, the first to be approved in Bolivia by popular vote, promises more power for the nation's poor indigenous majority. It recognizes communal justice, grants some regional autonomy, and declares coca a part of the nation's heritage. It also allows presidents to seek re-election, giving Morales a shot at remaining in office through 2014 following presidential elections now set for Dec. 6. Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera stands at left. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)
— AP

Bolivia's President Evo Morales holds up the new constitution after signing it into effect in El Alto, Bolivia, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. The new constitution, the first to be approved in Bolivia by popular vote, promises more power for the nation's poor indigenous majority. It recognizes communal justice, grants some regional autonomy, and declares coca a part of the nation's heritage. It also allows presidents to seek re-election, giving Morales a shot at remaining in office through 2014 following presidential elections now set for Dec. 6. Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera stands at left. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)
/ AP

EL ALTO, Bolivia 
President Evo Morales and thousands of supporters celebrated Bolivia's new constitution as it took effect on Saturday, saying the new document will enshrine indigenous rights and end centuries of oppression.

The constitution, the first approved in Bolivia by popular vote, promises more power for the poor, Indan majority; recognizes communal justice; grants some regional autonomy; and declares coca a part of the nation's heritage.

"This is the second independence, the true liberation of Bolivia," Morales said upon signing the charter. "It protects all Bolivians and excludes no one."

A military parade accompanied the ceremony before a crowd of Morales' Indian backers at El Alto – one of Bolivia's poorest cities and a birthplace of the constitutional reform movement. An Aymara priest burned a llama fetus as an offering to the "Pachamama," or "Mother Earth," to invoke the Andean gods' protection for the charter.

The new constitution also lets presidents seek re-election, giving the popular Morales a shot at remaining in office through 2014 if he wins a vote scheduled for Dec. 6.

The charter was backed by more than 61 percent of voters in a Jan. 25 referendum.

But the "no" vote prevailed in four of Bolivia's nine states – all in the relatively prosperous lowlands, where opposition to Morales is fervent and has sometimes turned violent – leaving the racially divided nation as torn as ever.

"Those that aren't indigenous are left as second-class citizens, abandoning the element of unity that is the Bolivian nation," former Vice President Victor Hugo Cardenas said of the constitution. Like Morales, Cardenas is of Aymara descent.

"In the name of the excluded, this constitution excludes another part of the country," added opposition politician Jorge Lazarte. "That doesn't guarantee its permanence."

Speaking to an audience that included Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, Morales on Sunday declared victory in his quest to remake the nation.

"You can take me from the presidential palace, you can kill me, (but) the mission has been accomplished for the refounding of Bolivia," he told his opponents.

He later urged Bolivians to reconcile and work together to implement the constitution.

Morales also rallied supporters to help him win 70 percent of the vote in December "to guarantee this democratic revolution."